GM 6.5 or Ford 7.3?

[442john]

I am looking at a 1993 Silverado 3500 Crew cab Dually with 49,000 miles on it. I like the GM trucks and have a '89 6.2 Suburban, but my truck is a 1987 F-350 CC Dually 7.3 banks, Over/Under drive. I am in process of replacing injectors on truck when I ran across the 1993 Chevy. I like the looks of the 1993 and low miles, but I was wondering how it compares to the 7.3 in my Ford? The 1993 is priced at $11,000, which is a lot of $$. What do you all think? Thanks and God bless, John

[Robyn]

Howdy and welcome to TDP

Well if you dont like the Ford then its easy.
The GM is a nice truck and all of us here are GM fans so that said I willbe honest.
$11 K for a 93 is pushing it some unless that thing is like new.

If your Ford is in good shape then a little TLC will get the old girl going again and you are set.

The old 7.3 with the Banks setup is a fine engine and will serve well under horrible coditions and do it for a long time.

I just wish the GM truck had the old 7.3 engines as they are a lot tougher built than the 6.5

You alone need to decide what you are going to be happy with though and that will be the deciding factor.

Just some thoughts

Robyn

[Shuck]

I would have to second Robyn's statements. If I could put the 7.3 engine in the Chevy chassis, then I'd have an almost perfect truck (except for the D-max/Allison - that IS the perfect truck).

I currently have both a Ford and a Chevy. The ONLY thing I like about the Ford is the engine. The ONLY thing I don't like about my Chevy is the engine. Not so much from a power/performance standpoint, but reliability and maintainability.

The other big difference between these trucks is the 4x4 system. Every Ford my family has ever owned has had something go wrong with the 4x4. Even my current 2002 Ford needed a new Chassis computer to get the 4x4 to work and the vac hubs still don't engage automatically. Every Chevy our family has owned has never needed 4x4 repairs. They shift in and out every time.

Like Robyn said, the 7.3 is a tough engine and a tough block - the 6.5s are hit and miss. So far, I have been lucky - 4 different 6.2/6.5 powered vehicles and nothing more major than one injection pump covered under warranty. It seems that 96-97 seem to be the most fragile years, but people's experience can vary. I'll list mine below to provide you a few data points.

1991 K1500 6.2 - bought new, sold with 179k miles in 2001. Everything original except glow plugs and wear items (brakes, filters, etc). Great truck. Had this while I was in college and I was _really_ hard on it. One of my friends ran it for 7 miles in the city with no coolant (block heater fell out) and it didn't complain a bit. We would jump it over a small bridge from time to time as well as get it stuck in some pretty bad places off-road. If the cab corners hadn't rusted clear through, I probably would still drive this truck.

1999 K2500 Suburban 6.5T (VIN F) - bought with 69k miles in 2001, sold with 120k miles in 2004. Had a new engine put in it at 65k before I bought it. I had to get a new IP under warranty around 105k. New IP never worked right. Also ended up spending a bunch of money redoing part of the engine swap that the Chevy dealer had done incorrectly - no help from Chevy USA.

1995 K1500 6.5T (VIN S) - bought with 185k miles in 2004, sold with 206k miles in 2006. Needed new wastegate solenoid (inexpensive) and lift pump when I bought it. New A/C compressor was the only other repair this truck needed. Not a bad truck, especially for the mileage. Would still set SES light/codes at random times and miss occasionally, but never found the problem - tried a new PMD.

1995 K2500 6.5T (VIN F) - bought with 159k miles on it about a month ago. Still has 159k miles on it because I can't drive it yet. Crank position sensor is bad (starts hard) which has caused the starter to go bad. Serpentine belt slips off at vac pump pulley - haven't been able to figure that out yet. Replaced harmonic balancer since it can cause broken cranks on the 95 engines. Verdict is still out on this one. When it runs, it runs pretty nice - I just have to be careful I don't shred or slip the belt until I track down the pulley alignment problem.

Hope that helps,
Ryan

[JohnC]

I've owned both. Performance wise they were similar. The GMC got slightly better mileage. The ford suffered from a bout of low(er) sulphur Diesel fuel and had a premature pump failure, but you're probably past that now. The GM got wrecked with only 50K miles, so I can't say on long term durability, but my '95 was still running strong after 140K.

I couldn't sell my '93 with 50K for $5,500, so I'm betting $11,000 is too much unless it's got something REALLY special...

[442john]

Thanks for advice!!!! I have a 1989 Suburban with a 6.2 diesel and we love it. It doesn't have the power I'D Like to have but it seems reliable. My dad has a 2006 Duramaxx and what a truck!! Can't afford one, put wow!! Have any of you read anything about "super tunning" your diesel using glow plugs as pyrometers? There is a thread on ford-trucks.com that I think looks interesting and I'm going to try it on both my Ford and My Chevy. I talked with the guy today on the 1993 and he said he'd take 10,000 for it. I think I'll try fixing mine first. Thanks and God bless, John